Viguerie Declares War on Rudy

This just in* from the conservative guru who pioneered direct-mail fundraising:

“If the Republican Party nominates Rudy Giuliani as its candidate for either president or vice president, I will personally work to defeat the GOP ticket in 2008,” says Richard A. Viguerie, author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.
“Rudy Giuliani is wrong on all of the social issues, is wrong on the
Second Amendment, and is pretty much a blank slate on all other issues of
importance to conservatives,” Viguerie adds. “If the Republican Party
nominates him, it is saying to the American people that it has lost all
purpose except the raw political desire to hold power. It will be time to put
the GOP out of its misery.”
Viguerie made his comments in response to Tuesday night’s debate in South
Carolina between the Republican presidential candidates.
“I continue to urge conservatives to withhold their support from all of
the present candidates,” he said. “The leading candidates aren’t worthy of
conservative support, and the few who are truly conservative don’t have a
realistic chance of getting the nomination.”
“But Rudy Giuliani is a special case,” Viguerie continued. “In recent
days, he has reaffirmed his long-standing support of abortion, and
Politico.com has revealed his numerous contributions to Planned Parenthood,
the nation’s biggest supplier of abortions. His comments in the debate did
nothing to diminish his affront to those who believe in the culture of life.”
“It’s Rudy or the GOP,” Viguerie concluded. “We’re in a political version
of ‘The Survivor,’ and both cannot survive politically.”